Posted
by
timothy
on Friday October 26, 2012 @06:38PM
from the categorical-blurring dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Ubuntu for the Nexus 7 was released today and Ubuntu Member Benjamin Kerensa has provided photos and video of it in action." I wish the Nexus 7 had what most Android tablets lack: a full-size USB port (or SD card slot) to make such OS experimenting easier.

While for some fucking reason they used a micro B connector instead of a micro AB the port DOES support host mode with the right adapter (which was easy enough to find on amazon).

The biggest annoyances are1: AFAICT there is no easy way to charge the device and put the port in host mode at the same time. The USB battery charging spec lays out a way to do it but it's tricky to acheive physically (you need to find a cable to cut up that allows you access to the ID line) and I don't know if the nexus will actually support it when you try.2: You need to root to mount USB drives (though if you are running ubuntu you are presumablly at that point already)

Interestingly with the adaptor I tried Ethernet over USB worked out of the box with no need to root.

Because you can connect an SD card reader, an USB memory or an USB hard drive for that matter, neatly resolving the original complaint which was about access to external storage: " (or SD card slot) ".